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MEMOIR 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, 



HISTORIAN OF SPAIN, MEXICO AND PERU. 



By Charles II. Hart, Esquire, 

Ilistoriographer of "The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia," and Corresponding 

Member of " The New England Ilistoric-Genealogical Society," " The Maine Historical 

Society, "The Long Island liiatorical Society," &c. &g. &c. 



Reprinted from the N. E. nistorical and Genealogical Register for July, 1S63. 



BOSTON: 

DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS. 
1868. 



n 



SIEMOm OF WILLIAM HICKLING rRESCOTT. 



The Prescott family belongs to tbe original Puritan stock and Llood 
of New England. John, the first emigrant, came from Lancashire, Eng- 
land, and settled in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, about the year 
1640, twenty years only after the first settlement of Plymouth, and 
ten years after that of Boston. The death of this John, who was 
a blacksmith, is placed in 1683. He had by his wife 
Mary (Piatt) Prescott, four daughters and three sons, 
the youngest of whom was Jonas, bom June — , 1648, 
married, by one account, to Thankful Wheeler, Octolier 
5, 16G9 ; and by another, to Marj', daughter of John 
Looker, December 14, 1670. Jonas lived in Groton ; 
and by the roadside near Lawrence Academy may be 
seen the annexed inscription on a large stone, in the wall en- 
closing the farm of the late Lion. Stuart J. Park. The initials of 
" I. P." are those of Jonas Prescott who lived upon this farm, 
and "0. P." are those of his grandson Doctor Oliver Prescott, who 
subsequently occupied it (N. E. Hist. Genealogical Register, January, 
1861, p. 91). Jonas Prescott had eight daughters and four sons, and 
died December 13, W23. The youngest of the sons, Benjamin, born 
January 4, 1696, died August 3, 1138, left three sons : James, who 
died in 1800 on the paternal estate at Groton, aged about 80 years ; 



I. p. 


1680. 


Rebuilt by 


0. p. 


1784. 


Rebuilt by 


S. J. Park 


1841. 



4 MEMOIR OF 

William, bom February 20, 1726, died October 13, 1795 ; and Oliver, 
bora April 27, 1731, died November 17, 1804. From the second son, 
William, who commanded the American forces at Bunker's Hill, on 
the memorable 17th of June, 1775, " the first real battle of the Revo- 
lution," was descended, by his wife Abigail (Hale) Prescott, William 
the fixther of the subject of this memoir. William Prescott, Jr., was 
born at Pepperell, Mass., August 19, 17C2, and died in Boston Decem- 
ber 8, 1844. lie married, December 18, 1793, Catherine Greene, 
daughter of Thomas Ilickling, who for nearly half a century held the 
position of United States Consul at the Azores. This estimable lady 
died May 17, 1852, aged about eighty-five. In speaking of Judge 
Prescott, Theophilus Parsons, in dedicating his great work on " The 
Law of Contracts," " To the historian of Spain, Mexico and Peru," 
says, " When he died, at the age of 82, I had known him intimately 
for twenty-nine years, and had known of him many more. And 
I never yet heard a word spoken, and never heard of a word spoken, 
to his disparagement or dispraise during his long life or since its close, 
by any person whomsoever ; not even have I heard the ' but ' or 
' if,' with which many indulge themselves in qualifying and cloud- 
ing the commendation they cannot but render." Mr. and Mrs. Pres- 
cott had seven children, four of whom died in infancy, and of the 
remaining three the eldest was the historian. 

William Hickliug Prescott was born in Salem, Massacliusetts, May 

4, 1796. In 1808, when he was twelve years old, he removed with 
his family to Boston, where he was placed in the school of Dr. John 

5. J. Gardiner, a pupil of the renowned Samuel Parr. It was at this 
school that Prescott formed that acquaintance which soon ripened 
into a life-long friendship, with his future biographer the accomplished 
author of the " History of Spanish Literature." Mr. Ticknor, in the 
preface to his life of Prescott, states that it is written in part payment 
of a debt, which has been accumulating for above half a century — 
the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella having exacted from his 
early and everlasting friend the promise, that in case he should survive 
him, he would prepare such a memorial of his literary life as might 
be supposed would be expected. 



WILLIAM niCKLING PRESCOTT. 

In August, 1811, ho was admitted to the Sophomore Class in Ilar- 
vard University. It was during his second collegiate year, that the 
accident happened to him which deprived him of the sight of his left 
eye. It occurred in the Commons Hall, one day after dinner. " Ho 
was passing," to use Mr. Ticknor's Words, " out of the door of the 
Hall, when his attention was attracted by a disturbance going on be- 
hind him. He turned his head quickly to see what it Was, and at the 
same instant received a blow from a large hard piece of broad, thrown 
undoubtedly at random, and in mere thoughtlessness and gayety. It 
struck the Ojjed eye ; a rare occurrence in the case of that vigilant 
organ, which on the approach of the slightest danger, is almost always 
protected by an instant and instinctive closing of the lids. But here 
there was no notice — no warning. The missile, which must have been 
thrown with great force, struck the very disk of the eye itself. It was 
the left eye. lie fell — and was immediately brought to his father's 
house in town, where in the course of two or three hours from the oc- 
currence of the accident, he was in the hands of Doctor James Jack- 
son, the tried friend as well as the wise medical adviser of his 
father's family." 

In a few weeks he returned to Cambridge, but the eye that had 
been struck was gone. No e.^ternal mark either then or afterwards 
indicated the injury that had been inflicted. He was graduated in 
1814, and delivered a Latin i)oora " Ad Spem," at the Commence- 
ment exorcises. Excessive use of the other eye for purposes of study, 
brought on a rheumatic inflammation, which deprived him entirely of 
sight for some weeks, and left the eye in too irritable a state to be 
employed in reading for several years, and then only for two or three 
hours a day at tlie most. 

In September, 1815, he sailed from Boston for the Island of St. 
Michael, to visit the family of his maternal grandfather, for the benefit 
of his health. After a lengthy passage of twenty-two days he safely 
arrived there, and resided in those sunny climes above six months, 
when he embarked for London, and reaching his destination on the 
2d of May, 1816, placed himself immediately under the care of Sir 
Astlcy Cooper, and of Sir William Adams the oculist. After travel- 



« MEMOIROF 

ling through the principal cities of Europe, he returned homo in the 
summer of 1817, with his sight little improved. 

It had been his father's intention and his own, that he should fol- 
low in thcat profession which had bestowed such honors upon his ac- 
complished parent, but the weakness of his sight prevented the 
execution of the design. 

On the 4th of May, 1820, his twenty-fourth birthday, he was mar- 
ried to Susan, daughter of Thomas C. Amory, Esq., and granddaugh- 
ter on her mother's side of Captain John Linzee, R. N., who com- 
manded the British sloop-of-war " Falcon," oft" Charlestown, on the 
day of the battle of Bunker's mil. " The grandfathers of Prcscott 
and Miss Amory were engaged on opposite sides during the war for 
American Independence ; and even on opposite sides in the same 
fight ; Col. Prcscott having commanded on Bunker's Hill, while Capt. 
Linzee cannonaded him and his redoubt from the waters of Charles 
River, where the Falcon was moored during tlie whole of the battle. 
The swords that were worn by the soldier and the sailor on that memo- 
rable day came down as heir-looms in their respective families, until at 
last they met in the library of the man of letters, there to remain dur- 
ing his life, quietly crossed above his books, where they often excited 
the notice alike of strangers and of friends." He bequeathed them to 
the Mussacluisetts Historical Society, where, in the same position as 
tliey hung in his, they now grace its library. These are the swords to 
which Thackeray made a peaceful allusion, in the opening of " The 
Virginians." 

At the period of his marriage, Mr. Ticknor describes liim as being 
one of the finest looking men he had ever seen. " He was tall, well- 
formed, manly in iiis bearing but gentle, with light brown hair tliat 
was hardly changed or diminished by years, with a clear complexion 
and a ruddy ilush on his cheek, that kept for him to the last an ap- 
pearance of comparative youth, but, above all, with a smile that was 
the most absolutely contagious I ever looked upon." And Mr. Ban- 
croft, in his remarks before the New York Historical Society on his 
death said, " His personal appearance was singularly pleasing, and 
won for him everywhere in advance a welcome and favor. His couu- 
tenauce had something that brought to mind the ' beautiful disdain ' 



WILI. lAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 1 

that hovers on that of the Apollo. His voice was like music, and one 
could never hear enough of it. His cheerfulness reached and animat- 
ed all about him. He could indulge in playfulness, and could also 
speak earnestly, profoundly ; but he knew not how to be ungracious 
or pedantic." 

As has been before said, he relinquished the study of the law in 
consequence of the state of his eye-sight, and resolved to devote him- 
self to literature, as a profession in which he could regulate his own 
hours in reference to what his sight might enable him to accomplish. 
In 1821, Mr. Prescott determined to devote the next ten years to the 
study of the modern school of literature, beginning with the early 
English writers, and continuing his course through French and Ita- 
lian, studying the language and the literature at the same time. 
Towards the latter end of 1824, he entered upon the study of the 
Spanish, which ho may be said to have studied, and studied 
faithfully during the remainder of his life. It was reserved for him in 
modern times, to bring before the world one of the most interesting 
periods of the world, and of a State that stood the very highest in that 
period. After much deliberation he chose for the subject of his iirst 
work, the remarkable history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
and on the 6th of October, 1829 — three years and a half from the 
time that he selected his subject and began to work upon it — he final- 
ly broke ground with its actual composition. All the materials which 
he had collected himself and which others had collected for him, had 
to be read and re-read to him, and then digested and arranged in his 
own mind for the position which they were to take in his histories. 
He compensated the necessity of using so much the eyes of others by 
a wonderful development of his powers. He gained the faculty of atten- 
tion in its highest perfection, and his memory took such fast hold of 
the knowledge that came to him through his ears, that it remained 
with him in exact and well defined outlines, as if it had been written 
there with " a diamond pen on tablets of steel." 

After ten years constant labor, on the 25th of June, 1836, he 
finished the concluding note, to the concluding chapter of the History 
of Ferdinand and Isabella. Strange as it may seem, it is neverthe- 



8 



At E M I R OF 



less true, that after tlicso ten years of labor on this work of love, and 
with the full happiness he felt on completing it, Mr. Prescott 
should have hesitated at last whether to publish it or not. Ho had 
four copies printed iu <^uarto, with large type, for his greater conveni- 
ence ; one of these he sent to Mr. Ticknor, who was then abroad, and 
the others he handed to a few friends, soliciting their opinions upon 
it, all of which were so concurring as to its great ability that it was 
finally given to the public on Christmas day, 1831, when its author 
was nearly forty-two years old. The merits of this work arc too well 
known to need any comment. It immediately stamped its author as 
one of the leading historians of the day. 

When Mr. Prescott was in London in 1816, he heard of an appara- 
tus to enable the blind to write, which he immediately obtained, and 
over after used, nor does it now seem possible that without the facili- 
ties it afforded him, he ever would have ventured to undertake any of 
the works which have made his name what it is. " That Mr. 
Prescott under his disheartening infirmities — I (Ticknor) refer not only 
to his imperfect sight, but to the rheumatism from which he was sel- 
dom wholly free — should at the age of five and twenty or thirty, with 
no help but this simple apparatus, have aspired to the character of an 
historian, dealing with events that happened in times and countries 
far distant from his own, and that are recorded chiefly iu foreign lan- 
guages and by authors whose conflicting testimony was often to be 
reconciled by laborious comparisons, is a remarkable fact in literary 
history." Unlike those authors njost illustrious in renown, whose am- 
bition such a misfortune could not check, he possessed no store of 
accumulated knowledge, nor could from the nature of his subject hope 
to rely upon his own inward resources of imagination or thought. 
Unlike Milton, the " overshadowing of the heavenly wings " did not 
wait to plunge his eyes in darkness until they had served him through 
long years of study, to garner up rich stores of various learning and 
research. Unlike the bard still more illustrious, " the blind old man 
who lived at Chios," he cliose not for his labors a legendary tale, 
where memory replenished by traditions gathered in a wandering life, 
and invention supplied from the overflowing fountains of intuitive 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 5J 

imagination, excused the necessity of accurate and multifarious re- 
search. 

Mr. Prcscott remained idle for nearly the entire of the two years, 
succeeding the publication of his first great work. During the interim, 
however, he collected materials for a life of Moliere, which he con- 
templated writing, but finding that his Ferdinand and Isabella had 
been so favorably received, he determined to devote himself to another 
Spanish subject, and selected that of the Conquest of Mexico, which 
was issued from the press in December, 1843, just six years from the 
appearance of his first history. In 1841, he published his " Conquest 
of Peru," for which he collected the materials, at the same time as lie 
was collecting for his Mexico. Between the publishing of these two 
works Mr. Prescott brought forth a volume of " Miscellanies," being 
his contributions to various Reviews, from 1823 to 1845, revised by 
himself, and forming one of the most interesting collections ever 
published. This volume contained all of Mr. Prescott's desultory 
writings, with the exception of the review of his friend's " History of 
Spanish Literature " in the North Amcricau for 1850, and this latter 
is included in more recent editions. 

These works were received with the highest favor in all parts of 
the civilized world, and praises and honors showered upon the author. 
He was elected a member of nearly all the principal learned bodies in 
Europe, and in 1845 was chosen a corresponding member of the class 
of Moral and Political Philosophy in the Institute of France, to fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the death of the learned Spanish historian 
Navarette. This last honor, in recording it in his memoranda, Mr. 
Prescott writes " the greatest I shall ever receive." Oxford Univer- 
sity conferred upon him her degree of D.C.L. in 1850, and with 
Macaulay, in 1852, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Irish 
Academy, one of fifteen scholars distinguished in j)olite literature, 
enrolled by this body among its associates. He was elected an 
honorary member of this society in 1847. 

In 1850, Mr. Prescott made a short visit to Europe, passing a few 
months in England, Scotland and Belgium. From his letters written 
during this period, are to be derived some of the best and truest de- 
2 



10 MEMOIR OP 

scriptions of the town and country life — more especially the latter — of 
the great landed British aristocracy, ever given. On his return, he 
applied himself assiduously to his "History of Philip the Second," 
a work which he had long meditated, as may be seen from the follow- 
ing extract from his memoranda written in the spring of 1838, when 
he was searching for materials for his Mexico and Peru. " Should I 
succeed in my present collections, who knows what facilities I may 
find for making one relative to Philip the Second's reign — a fruitful 
theme if discussed under all relations civil and literary, as well as mili- 
tary, the last of which seems alone to have occupied the attention of 
Watson." The first two volumes of this work appeared in Boston in 
1855, and the third in 1858. The entire history was intended to com- 
prise five volumes, but was never finished. It is understood that 
Mr. Charles Gayarre contemplates completing this work or writing 
a similar one. 

On February 4th, 1858, Mr. Prescott experienced a slight attack of 
apoplexy, from the effects of which, however, he soon recovered and 
resumed his literary pursuits. Twelve months all to one week from 
the first attack, while at work with his secretary, John Porster Kirk, 
in his study, he was struck by a second, and died within an hour 
afterwards. Thus on the 28th of January, 1859, passed from the 
arena of his earthly usefulness, William Hickling Prescott, in the 
sixty-second year of his age. A man honored and mourned alike, 
both at home and abroad, who, though deprived at an early age of the 
keenest of the five senses, has left to posterity a monument of learn- 
ing and industry, more endurable than marble, more valuable than 
gold. 

He desired that, after death, his remains might rest for a time in the 
cherished room where were gathered the intellectual treasures amidst 
which he had found so much of the happiness of his life. His wish 
was fulfilled. 

Mr. Prescott was an early riser, and he made it a rule to ride every 
morning, before breakfast, three or four miles. No weather except a 
severe storm prevented him at any period from thus, as ho called it, 
" winding himself up." " If a violent storm prevented him from going 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 11 

out, or if the bright snow on sunny days in winter rendered it danger- 
ous for him to expose his eye to the brilliant reflection, he would dress 
himself as for the street and walk vigorously about the colder parts 
of the house, or he would chop or saw fire wood under cover, being 
all the time in the former case read to." 

Besides the works mentioned, Mr. Prescott wrote brief memoirs of 
his friends, John Pickering and Abbott Lawrence, and supplied to an 
edition of Kobertson's Charles the Fifth, a sequel relating the true 
circumstances of the Emperor's retirement and death. 

What has been finely said by Lamartine of the true office of His- 
tory is most applicable to Prescott — that " the impartiality of history is 
not that of a mirror in which objects are merely reflected, but that of 
a judge, who sees, listens and determines. Annals arc not history — 
history to deserve the name must be imbued with a conscience, and 
then in time it becomes the conscience of the human race." The 
highest requisites for a writer in this department of literature are a love 
of truth, impartiality, a discriminating judgment and a resolute pur- 
pose to procure all the facts that can be found, enabling him to render 
full justice to his subject. These requisites Prescott possessed in an 
eminent degree. Bead his works through, and the evidence of them 
will be found impressed on every page. No extravagant theories, 
no over-wrought descriptions to disguise the faults or foibles of a 
favorite hero, none of the resorts of the casuist to sustain or defend a 
doubtful policy ; in short, none of those intricate and questionable 
by-paths of opinion or assertion into which historians are sometimes 
led by their personal antipathies and partialities will be found. Truth 
was his first aim as far as he could detect it in the conflicting records 
of events ; and his next aim was to impress this truth, in its genuine 
colors, upon the reader. The characters and motives of men were 
weighed in the scales of justice, as they appeared to him after care- 
ful research and mature thought. In all these qualities of an accom- 
plished historian, for him a comparison with any other writer may 
safely be challenged. 

It is a saying, that " the style is the man," and of no great author in 
the literature of the world is that saying more true than of Prescott. 



12 MEMOIROF 

For in the transparent simplicity and undimmed beauty and candor of 
bis style were read the endearing qualities of his soul ; so that his per- 
sonal IViends are found wherever literature is known, and the love for 
him is co-extensive with the world of letters — not limited to those who 
speak our Anglo-Saxon mother language, to the literature of which 
Le has contributed such splendid works, but co-extensive with the 
civilized languages of the human race. 

Beyond question, all circumstances considered, he was the most 
remarkable among the men of letters which our country — nay, which 
our time has produced. The difSculties he had to contend with, from 
almost total deprivation of sight ; the trouble he must have had to 
imbue his mind with knowledge by aid of a reader ; the heavy task 
which he must have imposed upon his memory ; the painful industry 
with which he composed his voluminous, accurate and brilliant works, 
making chapters in his mind ere they were set down upon paper ; the 
perseverance with wliich, despite his defective vision and always fee- 
ble health, he earned out his high purpose of authorship ; the patience 
which sustained him through his labors and his suflcrings ; the utter 
absence of personal vanity or pride when the world hailed him as one 
of its greatest men ; the trusting faith in an all-wise Providence which so 
well sustained him ; the silken ties of atfection and regard which bound 
him, not only to his family and his friends, but to all who came witli- 
in tlie magic circle of his acquaintance — all these united in one person 
ma<lo Prescott at once a groat and a true man. 

This article cannot be brought to a more appropriate close, than by 
repeating the words of the lion. Mr. Everett before the Massachu- 
setts Ilistorical Society, shortly after Mr. Prescott's death. lie said, 

" When in after times the history of our American literature shall 
be written, it will be told witli admiration how in the first rank of a 
school of contemporary historical writers flourishing in the United 
States in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, more numer- 
ous and not less distinguished than those of any other country, a 
young man, who was not only born to affluence and exposed to all its 
seductions, but who seemed forced into inaction by the cruel accident 
of his youth, devoted himself to that branch of literary cflort which 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 13 

seems most to require the eyesight of the student, and composed a 
series of historical works not less remarkable for their minute and 
accurate learning- than their beauty of style, calm philosophy, acute 
delineation of character, and sound good sense. No name more bril- 
liant than his will descend to posterity on the roll of American 
Authors. 

" So long as in ages far distant, and not only in countries now re- 
fined and polished, but iu those not yet brought into the domain of 
civilization, the remarkable epoch which he has described shall attract 
the attention of men ; so long as the consolidation of the Spanish 
monarchy and the expulsion of the Moors, the mighty theme of the 
discovery of America, the wonderful genius of Columbus, the mail-clad 
forms of Cortes and Pizarro, and the other grim conquistador es, tramp- 
ling new found empires under the hoofs of tlieir cavalry, shall be sub- 
jects of literary interest ; so long as the blood shall curdle at the cru- 
elties of Alva, and the fierce struggles of the Moslem in the East ; so 
long will the writings of our friend be read. With respect to some 
of them, time, in all human probability, will add nothing to his mate- 
rials. It was said the other day by our respected associate President 
Sparks (a competent authority), that no historian, ancient or modern, 
exceeded Mr. Prescott in the dejjth and accuracy of his researches. 
lie has driven his Artesian criticism through wretched modern com- 
pilations and the trashy exaggerations of intervening commentators, 
down to the original contemporary witnesses ; and the sparkling 
waters of truth have gushed up from the living rock. In the details 
of his narrative further light may be obtained from sources not yet 
accessible. The first letter of Cortes may be brought to light ; the 
hieroglyphics of Palenque may be deciphered ; but the history of tlie 
Spanish empire during the period for which he has treated it, will be 
read by posterity for general information, not in the ancient Spanish 
authorities, not in the black letter chronicles, but in the volumes 
of Prescott." 

Mr. Prescott had four children, three of whom, William Gardiner 
Prescott, Elizabeth (Prescott) Lawrence, and William Amory Prescott, 
survived him with their mother. 



M E M O I R 



GEORGE TICK NOR, 



HISTORIAN OF SPANISH LITERATURE. 



By Charles Henry Hart, LL.B., 

Aulhor of "Memoir of William Hickling Prescott," and Ilistoriogvapber of "The Numismatic and 
Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia," etc. etc. 



Read before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, May 4, )S71. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

COLLINS, PRINTER, 705, JAYNE STREET. 

1871. 



MEMOIR OF GEORGE TIOKNOR. 



This evening I will ask your attention while I i)ortra3- briefly 
some of tlie incidents whicli went to make up tlie life, character, 
and work of our late fellow member, the accomplislied historian 
of Spanish literature, and biogra]3her of his life-long friend, the 
historian of Spain, Mexico, and Peru. 

It is a rare instance in the literature of one country, to have 
three of its brightest ornaments devote their energies and talents 
to the delineation and elucidation of the history of another and 
far distant country, — far distant, not only in its geographical posi- 
tion, but equally so in its manners, its customs, its people, and its 
language ; and with such success that their works are the leading 
authorities upon-the subjects of which they treat. Such, however, 
has been the case with Spain, and our Irving, our Prescott, and our 
Ticknor ; while two other of our authors. Motley and Kirk, have 
handled with like success, topics connected with and arising out 
of, the history of that country. It is to Mr. Ticknor, the last of 
the trio, that we have especial reference at this time. 

George Ticknor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 
1st, 1791. lie was descended in tlie sixth generation from Ser- 
geant William Ticknor, of Kent, England, who emigrated to this 
country and settled in Scituate, Massachusetts, where he was 
married on the 29th of October, 1656, by Major Humphrey Ath- 
erton, to Hannah, daughter of John Stockbridge, one of the early 
settlers of that town. Tliis William Ticknor, was sergeant ol' 



4: M E 1[ O I R O F 

General Cudworth's guard or " particular company," in King 
Philip's war, 1676, and it is to tins event that we must ascribe 
the sobriquet by which he was ever after known. Ilis wife, 
Hannah, died in 1665, and the next year he married Deborah, 
daughter of Thomas Hyland, and she deceased in 1693, leaving 
her husband surviving. The date of his death is uncertain. He 
had two children by his first wife, the elder of whom, John, died 
the same year as his mother, and the younger, William, baptized 
in 166-4, married Lydia, daughter of Deacon Joseph Tilden, No- 
vember 2d, 1696, and removed to Lebanon, in the colony of Con- 
necticut, some time in the year 1710. Before their leaving Scituate, 
they had four children, two sons and two daughters; the second, 
named John, born in 1699, was married at Lebanon, in 172-4, to 
Mary Bailey. This John died in 1751, having had nine children, 
most of whom survived their father. His fifth child, Elisha, born 
in 1736, was married, first, in 1755, to Ruth Knowles, of Truro, 
Massachusetts, and second in 1772, the year following his first 
wife's death, to Deborah Davis of Lebanon. He died in 1822, 
having had by his two wives, fifteen children. His eldest child 
was born March 25th, 1757, and was the father of the subject of this 
memoir. He was named Elisha, from his father, and was gradu- 
ated by Dartmouth College in 1783, and from the year of his 
graduation until 1786, was one of the "Schok\i Moorensis Pr^e- 
ceptoi'es," as the college triennial has it. This Moor's school, 
which took its name from a munificent farmer in Mansfield, Con- 
necticut, who donated a house and two acres of land for the pur- 
pose, was instituted by the venerable Wheelock for the education 
of Indian youth, but the plan proving unsuccessful, finally be- 
came connected with Dartmouth College, as a preparatory aca- 
demy, and Elisha Ticknor severed his connection with it to take 
charge of a school at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which he kept for 
a twelvemonth, and then removed to Boston, where he became 
Principal of the Free Franklin School. This position he con- 
tinued to hold until 1794, when he was forced to resign by his 



G E KGE TI C KN O R. 5 

rapidly failing hcaltli. He then engaged in the business of a 
grocer, and the change from his former sedentary occupation to 
a life of activity entirely restored him. 

He continued in commercial pursuits until 1812, when he re- 
tired upon a competency, and died at Hanover, New Hampshire, 
June 26th, 1821. He was one of the founders of the primary 
schools of Boston, and of the first savings bank, in New Eng- 
land. By his contemporaries he was familiarly termed "Master 
Ticknor," and a romantic story used to be told by one of them of 
his engagement to the daughter of a French nobleman, one of his 
pupils, which was adroitly broken off by her father, and he sub- 
sequently married Mrs. Elizabeth [Billing.s] Curtis, widow of Dr. 
Benjamin Curtis, of Boston. He is described as having been of 
light complexion, with regular features, and his address that of a 
"courteous gentleman of the old school." The sole issue of this 
marriage was one son, George, whose career I shall proceed now 
to sketch. He evinced early iu life a love for learning and for 
books, and at the hands of his estimable father received his rudi- 
mentary education, and acquired a knowledge of the modern 
languages of Europe. Preparatory to his entering Dartmouth 
College, at the tender age of eleven, he passed a summer near 
Hanovei-, New Hampshire, and here it was, in the month of May, 
1802, that he first saw Daniel Webster, who had come from his 
school in Fryeburg, to visit his brother Ezekiel, then a student 
in college. Although at this time their acquaintance could have 
been only such as might arise between an intelligent boy and a 
young man ardent in the pursuit of " teaching young ideas how 
to shoot," still it was the beginning of what afterwards became a 
close intimacy for life. 

Mr. Ticknor graduated in the class of 1807, and had for his 
classmates, among others, Professor Josiah Parsons Cooke, Hon- 
orable Timothy Farrar, and General Sylvanus Thayer, all of 
^1 whom survive him, in the " se^ and yellow leaf" of life. But 
I not content with the regular college course which he had com- 



6 >[ K M I R O F 

pleted with liigb honor, lie resorted to the school of the late Rev. 
John Sylvester John Gardiner, then Rector of Trinity Church, 
Boston, and himself a pupil of the renowned and celebrated Dr. 
Samuel Parr, who was reputed the most learned and elegant clas- 
sical scholar of his time in England, for instruction in the classics 
not elsewhere to be had at that day, and pursued under him an 
extensive course of study in the Greek and Latin authors. It 
was at this school that Ticknor formed that acquaintance which 
soon ripened into a life-long friendship with the future historian 
of Spain, Mexico, and Peru, " then a bright boy a little more 
than twelve years old." How seldom it is, that we find, as in his 
case Avith Webster and Prescott, that the earliest friendships are 
the most lasting. 

In latter years Mr. Ticknor often referred with great satisfaction 
to the excellent groundwork in good scholarship, which was laid 
for him at that time and which he attributed mainly to the valua- 
ble oral instruction he received from Dr. Gardiner, whom he' 
regarded as a very accomplished belles-lettros scholar. It is 
rather curious to notice the transmission of good scholarship 
through three generations, by direct instruction, as in the case of 
Dr. Parr, Dr. Gardiner, and Mr. Ticknor. In this connection it 
may be of interest to note that Mr. Ticknor afterwards met 
Dr. Parr, at Hatton, and the doctor expressed to him his great 
respect and regard for his former pupil. During the time of his 
connection with Dr. Gardiner's classes, Mr. Ticknor was a member 
of the Anthology Club, formed in Boston, in ISOl, for the purpose 
of publishing a periodical called "The Monthly Anthology and 
Boston Review," which extended to some ten volumes, and died in 
the sixth year of its existence, from the ashes of which the now 
famous Boston Athenteum arose. To this periodical he made 
his first contributions to that literature which he was destined 
later so nobly to adorn. After devoting some three years to his 
classical studies, he gave as many more to the law, under the 
direction of the Hon. William Sullivan, and was admitted to the 



G E O R G E T I C K N O R. 7 

bar in 1813, but lie never practised, liis coiineetiuu with the legal 
profession being merely nominal. 

In the winter of 1814-15, Mr. Ticknor, having made up his 
mind to pass some time at the University of Gottingen, was en- 
deavoring, chiefly among the Germans in the interior of Penn- 
sylvania, to obtain information concerning the modes of teaching 
in Germany, about which there was, as ho himself says, " an abso- 
lute ignorance in Now England." Continuing his journey further 
south, he visited Monticello, carrying with him flattering letters 
of introduction from ex-President Adams and others. " lie re- 
mained there some days, attracting an unusual share of the 
attention and regard of Mr. Jefferson and his family by his un- 
commonly ripe learning. Until he became satisfied that it would 
be better to draw the body of the professors of the university 
from abroad, Jefferson had been anxious that Ticknor should 
fill one of the chairs." (" Randall's Life of Jefferson.") Return- 
ing from the shrine of true Democracy in America, Mr. Ticknor 
passed some time in Washington, staying at Crawford's Hotel, 
Georgetown, then the headquarters of the Federal membei-s of 
Congress, with the idea no doubt of familiarizing himself with 
the two great antagonistic political parties, then struggling for 
the reins of power in this country. 

In April, 1815, accompanied by his friend Edward Everett, 
who had recently been ap[)ointed Professor of the Greek Lan- 
guage and Literature in Harvard College, with the understanding 
that he should spend some time in Europe before engaging in 
the arduous duties of the post, Mr. Ticknor embarked for Gottin- 
gen, with the purpose of devoting himself, at that great seat 
of learning, almost exclusively to philological studies. "We 
passed," he tells us in his tribute to his companion Everett, before 
the Massachusetts Historical Society, '"a few weeks in London, 
during the exciting period of Bonaparte's %st campaign, and 
just at the time of the battle of Waterloo. But we were in a 
hurry to be at work. We hastened, therefore, through Holland, 



8 jr E M I E F 

stopping chiefly to buy books, and early in August were already 
ill the chosen place of our destination. It was our purpose to 
remain there a year; but the facilities for study were such as we 
had never heard or dreamt of. My own residence was in conse- 
quence protracted to a year and nine months, and Mr. Everett's 
was protracted yet six months longer — both of us leaving the 
tempting school at last sorry and unsatisfied." During the period 
of his residence in Gottingen, Mr. Ticknor lived in the house of 
Bouterwek, the distinguished author of the history of modern 
literature in Europe, and a favorite teacher in the University, 
and might it not have been from him that he first drew the 
inspiration for his future labors? 

From Germany, Mr. Ticknor went to France, arriving in Paris 
but a few days after the arrival of his former school-companion 
Prescott, who was seeking in the great cities of the continent 
some relief from his fast darkening blindness, which relief, how- 
ever, was denied him, and he returned home in the summer of 
1817, with his sight little improved. It was during Mr. .Tick- 
nor's sojourn in Paris that he received from Harvard University 
the appointment of Professor of the French and Spanish Lan- 
guages and Literature, and of Belles-lettres. He had, while yet 
at Gottingen, been proffered by the corporation of the college, 
the chair of Modern Literature on the foundation of the late 
Abiel Smith, Esq., an eminent merchant of Boston; but Mr. Tick- 
nor would accept it only on condition that his salary should 
commence at the time when the oft'er was made, and that he 
should apply the first year's salary to the purchase of works 
suitable to his department, for the college library. It was the 
notification of the acceptance by the college government of his 
conditions which consummated the appointment, that he received 
at this time. He at once set about preparing himself for his new 
post. In Paris he explored, under able teachers, the difficult 
Romance dialect, the medium of the beautiful Provencal, and 
then in Spain, sought to perfect himself in the true Castilian. 



GEOKGETICKNOR. 9 

111 Eome lie studied Italian, and in London and Edinburgh the 
purest models in our own language and literature. 

It will be remembered that prior to i[r. Tieknor's visit to 
Europe, he had been spending some time with Jeft'ersou at 
Monticello, and frona the author of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence he took warm letters of introduction to Lafayette, Dupout 
De Nemours, Say, and others, w'hich, together with his own pol- 
ished and agreeable manners, gained for him such an entrance 
into Parisian and European society as few of his age and coun- 
try could gain. It is, however, with his visit to England and 
Scotland that we will find most delight, not so much for the 
places he visited as for the people he saw and the friendships 
he secured. We liave a partiality for these men and women, 
for their rivers and their towns. Their glory is our glory, and 
their honor our honor. We speak the same language, in our 
veins courses the same blood^^^In their towns our forefathers first 
breathed life^(an^i«««HP4ii«OT«Niw«aaiiiHikHiaaHiMabiMk, It is this 
that makes us so nearly one, and causes us to be pained when 
we hear or see anything that tends to lessen our love and reve- 
rence for our once mother country. 

In the fall of 1818, Mr. Ticknor came from a residence of some 
months in Spain, to London, where he formed the acquaintance 
of "the three children," Irving, Leslie, and Newton, all of whom 
made the excursion together from London to Windsor, which 
resulted in the beautiful paper in the "Sketch Book." But they 
were his own countrymen ; of those to the manor born whom he 
met, the most distinguished were Lord Byron and Sir Walter 
Scott, and we must all remember his charming sketches of these 
two sons of genius, contributed to our own AUibone's wondrous 
"Dictionary." He knew also, among others, Rogers, Wordsworth, 
Southey, William Roscoe, Sir James Mackintosh, Lord Holland, 
and Professor Monk, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester and the 
biographer of Bentley. With most of these he continued to cor- 
respond after his return home, and, with many of them renewed 
2 



10 M E M O I R O F 

his acquaintance in after 3' ears. Maria Edge worth and Miss 
Mitford seem to have been drawn strongly toward him, while 
■with Humboldt, Goethe, Schlegel, and Madame de Staiil, he was 
on terms of familiar intercourse. 

During the winter and spring of 1819, he passed some weeks 
at Edinburgh, and then and there saw Scott frequently, and 
dined with him several times at "Poor No. 39," as Scott used to 
call his house in Castle Street after he left it. As the spring 
came on there was a vacation in the court of which Sir Walter 
was clerk, and he left town for Abbotsford, having first invited 
Mr. Ticknor to visit him there. This invitation was accepted, 
and Mr. Ticknor, accompanied by Mr. Cogswell, the late well- 
known superintendent of the Astor Library, New York, spent 
three days at Abbotsford, about the middle of March. After his 
departure Scott wrote to Southey, under date of April 4th: "I 
shall like our American acquaintance the better that he has 
sharpened your remembrance of me; but he is also a wonderful 
fellow for romantic lore and antiquarian research, considering his 
country. I have now seen four or five well lettered Americans, 
ardent in pursuit of knowledge and free from the ignorance and 
forward presumption which distinguish many of their country- 
men. I hope they will inoculate their country with a love of 
letters so nearly allied to a desire of peace and a sense of public 
justice — virtues to which the great trans-Atlantic community is 
more strange than could be wished." In this connection it may 
not be out of place to state what is not generally known, and 
certainly is of much interest, that Scott at one time contemplated 
writing a weird story or novel based on the strange witchcraft 
delusions of our country in the days of its early settlement, and 
for the purpose iiad collected several works bearing upon the 
subject. Whj' he abandoned the intention I do not know, but 
the works which he had secured for the sources of his information, 
he afterwards presented to Henry Brevoort, of New York, the 
chosen friend of Washington Irving, and the accomplished father 



GEORGETICKNOK. 11 

of our Honorary Vice-President J. Carson Brevoort, of Brooklyn, 
in whose possession these literary treasures, each enriched with 
Scott's autograph, now are, and where I have had the privilege 
and pleasure of handling and examining them. 

Early in the summer of 1819 Ticknor returned from Europe, 
bringing with liim the first numbers of the Sketch-book from 
Irving, and a valuable collection of books, foriuing the nucleus 
around wliich at the time of his death the finest private library 
of Spanish literature in the world had grown. He tells us, in the 
preface to the first edition of his History, how these precious 
tomes were secured, and pays a pleasurable tribute to his Spanish 
preceptor, Don Jose Antonio Conde, of ^fadrid, who assisted him 
in collecting the works he needed ; " — -never an easy task where 
bookselling in the sense elsewhere given to the word was un- 
known, and where the inquisition and the confessional had often 
made what was most desirable, most rare. But Don Jose knew 
the lurking places where such books and their owners were to be 
sought; and to him I am indebted for the foundation of a collec- 
tion in Spanish literature which without help like his I should 
have failed to make." In the month of August following his 
return, he was formally inaugurated into the Professorship on the 
Smith Foundation in Harvard University, which position he con- 
tinued to hold until May 1835, when he resigned and was suc- 
ceeded by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who in turn was fol- 
lowed twenty years later by James Russell Lowell, the present 
incumbent of the chair. He entered at once on his academic labors 
and delivered a series of lectures on the subjects which he was 
chosen to illustrate. These lectures, delivered in an impressive 
manner, and with their luminous and often eloquent diction, gave a 
new impulse to letters. "We well remember," writes Prescott, in 
the North American Review for January, 1850, "the sensation 
produced on the first delivery of these lectures, which seemed to 
break down the barrier which had so long confined the student 
to a converse with antiquity; they opened to him a free range 



12 M E M OI R O F 

among those great masters of modern literature who had liitlierto 
been veiled in the obscurity of a foreign idiom. The inlluence 
of this instruction was soon visible in the liigher education, as 
well as the literary ardor shown by the graduates. So decided 
was the impulse thus given to the popular sentiment, that con- 
siderable apprehension was felt lest modern literature was to 
receive a disproportionate share of attention in the scheme of 
collegiate education." 

During his connection with the University he suggested several 
valuable improvements in the system of discipline, for which he 
had derived the hints from the German institutions of learning 
he had visited; and in 1825, published, in a pamphlet of .some 
fifty pages, "Remarks on Changes lately proposed or adopted 
in Harvard University." His views on these subjects were greatly 
admired by his early friend Mr. Jefferson, who wrote to him a 
letter, defending the system of allowing students in colleges the 
uncontrolled choice of their studies, after reaching a certain age 
and grade of elementar}' qualification. This is the plan with some 
changes lately introduced into most of our American colleges, and 
familiarly termed "the elective system;" a system which in our 
mind has more evils tlian virtues, its benefits tending much 
toward the prosperity of the institution, but little for a high 
state of cultivation in the graduates. In the letter just referred 
to, ]Mr. Jeft'erson informed Mr. Ticknor that the last of the build- 
ings for the University of Virginia would be nearly finished by 
the autumn of 1824, and lie wanted him then to make a visit to 
Monticello, and contribute his knowledge of the regulations and 
discipline of the European schools, to aid in shaping those of the 
United States. He declared that the rock he most dreaded was 
the discipline gf the institution, because " the insubordination of 
our youth was now the greatest obstacle to their education." 
This invitation was accepted in December of that year, and Mr 
Ticknor — who had been married, September 18, 1821, to Anna, 
youngest daughter of the late Samuel Eliot, of Boston — -was 



TtKORGE TIOKNOR. 13 

accompanied by his wife, as also by Daniel AVebster; and they 
spent four or five days with JelYerson, then over eighty years of 
age. The pleasure of the visit was very much marred to the 
visitors by the news received by Mr. Webster, after leaving 
Washington, that his youngest child, a boy of a couple of years, 
was dangerously ill ; but the intercourse between the two lead- 
ing statesmen of this country — one in the setting and the other 
in the rising sun of his power — was marked by much attention 
and deference to the views and opinions of the other. 

While Mr. Ticknor was engaged in the duties of his Profes- 
sorship he found time to make .some few contributions to general 
literature. In 1823, he published a "Syllabus of a Course of 
Lectures on the History and Criticism of Spanish Literature," 
and two years later contributed to the North American Review, 
"Outlines of the Principal Event.s in the Life of Lafayette," 
which subsequently went through several edition.s in pamplilet 
form, and was translated and printed both in France and Ger- 
many. In 1826, having been appointed a member of the Board 
of Visitors to the Military Academy at West Point, he prepared 
the report required of that body, and the next year he collected 
the fugitive pieces of his friend, the late Nathan Appleton Haven, 
and published them with a memoir from his own pen. With 
Robert Walsh, Mr. Ticknor was quite intimate, and for his 
Review, the American Quarterly, issued at Philadelphia by 
Carey & Lea, he wi'ote two articles — one an elaborate paper on 
the "Early Spanish Drama" (1828), and the other, "Remarks 
on the Life and Writings of Daniel Webster" (1831), afterwards 
reprinted separately with additions. Before the American Insti- 
tute of Education, in August, 1832, he delivered a lecture on the 
"Best Methods of Teaching the Living Languages," a subject 
about which no one Avas better informed. 

In May, 1835, Mr. Ticknor was forced to resign his chair in 
the University, owing to a great domestic affliction, the loss of 
his only son at the early age of seven years, which shock for a 



1-i JI E M O I R O F 

time threatened to affect seriously the healtli of Mrs. Ticknor. 
For her restoration, he determined to try, with his family, the 
efficacy of a European tour, and thus, a second time, he sought 
the other side of the broad Atlantic. Here he met again many 
of the friends of his former visit, but ahis, many of them had 
gone "to that undiscovered country from wliose bourne no 
traveller returns." In Spain, he made the acquaintance of Don 
Pascual de Gayangos, Professor of Arabic in the University of 
Madrid, and destined to become one of the translators of his 
future History, of whom, in the preface to that work, he says: 
"Certainly in his peculiar departments among the most eminent 
scholars now living, and one to whose familiarity with whatever 
regards the literature of his own country, the frequent references 
in my notes bear a testimony not to be mistaken." Humboldt, 
writing to Bunsen, about this same period, says : "You no doubt 
well remember the time before the flood, when two highly gifted, 
classically educated Americans, Ticknor and Everett, travelled 
all over Europe. Ticknor again appears upon the horizon. 
Eeceive him with the kindness which you so well know how to 
exercise. For that you shall have my thanks. Ticknor is the 
friend of our house." And in Crabbe Eobinsou's entertaining 
"Diary and Eeminiscences," lately published, there is an allusion 
to the great pleasure he and Wordsworth, with whom he was 
travelling, experienced at meeting Mr. Ticknor in Eome, in the 
spring'of 1837. In the same Diary, one month later, June 12th, 
is the following entry: "Just before we reached Como, the scenery 
became very grand. On our arrival I had just time to run to 
the cathedral, but all other feelings were for the time overpow- 
ered by the pleasure of meeting the Ticknors, a very fortunate 
occurrence, quite unexpected. They, too, were going up the lake 
by the steamboat, and thus we united the pleasure of the scenery 
with the gratification of a chat with a very clever family. Per- 
haps on this account I saw too little of the lake. Its beauties 
were not unknown to me. At all events the day was a most 



GEORGE TICKNOR. 15 

agreeable one." There are several references to meeting the 
Ticknors at other places daring this "Italian tour," the last 
at Venice on the twenty-third of June, in these words : " We 
called upon the Ticknors, and Wordsworth accompanied them 
to hear Tasso chanted by gondoliers." 

The chief object for which this foreign travel was undertaken, 
having been accomplished by the complete restoration of Mrs. 
Ticknor's health, they returned home early in the year 1839, and 
Mr. Ticknor devoted the ten succeeding vears of his life, amid 
the rich resources of his unexampled collections, and with his 
mind trained and perfected by his previous studies, to his great 
work, the "History of Spanish Literature." It was published 
simultaneously in New York by the Harpers, and in London by 
Murray, and at once attained the rank of a classic in the language. 
It was translated into Spanish by Gayangos and Vedia, into Ger- 
man by Julius, and into French by Magnabal. A second edition 
was called for in 185-4, and a third appeared, almost entirely 
rewritten, with additions and alterations, in 1866. From the 
preface to the last edition, dated "Park Street, February, 1863," 
I must transcribe the closing words: "Its preparation has been 
a pleasant task, scattered lightly over the years that have elapsed 
since the first edition of this work was published, and that have 
been passed, like the rest of my life, almost entirely among my 
own books. Tliat I shall ever recur to this task again, for the 
purpose of further changes or additions, is not at all probable. 
My accumulated years forbid any such anticipation; and therefore, 
with whatever of regret I may part from what has entered into 
the happiness of so considerable a portion of my life, I feel that 
I now part from it for the last time. Extremum hoc munus 
habetoy 

The history of Spanish Literature is divided by its author 
into three periods; the first treats of "the literature that ex- 
isted in Spain between the first appearance of the present written 
language and the early part of the reign of the Emperor Charles 



16 MEMOIKOF 

the Fiflb, or from the end of the twelfth century to the begin- 
ning of the sixteenth." The second, " the literature that existed 
in Spain from the accession of the Austrian Family to its extinc- 
tion ; or from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the 
end of the seventeenth" — and the third, "the literature that ex- 
isted in Spain between the accession of the Bourbon Family and 
the invasion of Bonaparte; or from the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth century to the early part of the nineteenth." To the first 
belong a valuable essay on tlie formation of the Spanish language 
out of the Latin, the Gothic, and the Arabic tongues, which suc- 
cessive invasions of the Peninsula had mixed with the speech of 
the still older races ; the early literature of the ballad, including 
the national " Poem of the Cid ;" the chronicles, the romance, and 
the drama, topics all of curious historical as well as literary 
interest, opening many points of learned and philosophical inves- 
tigation. The second period introduces us to the glories of the 
Castilian, the theatre of Lope de Vega and Calderon, and the 
novels of Cervantes, the historical and lyric schools — with the 
varied development of a rich, fertile, original literature. The 
third is the broken age of decline under historic influences, 
which are skilfully treated. Irving, in thanking the author for 
a presentation copy of his work, characteristically says: "I am 
glad you have brought it out during my lifetime, for it will be a 
vade mecu'in for the rest of my days. When I have once read it 
through, I shall keep it b}' me like a Stilton cheese, to give a dig 
into whenever I want a I'elishing morsel. I began to fear it 
would never see the light in my day, or that it might fare with 
you as with that good lady, who went thirteen years with child 
and then brought forth a little old man, who died in the course 
of a month of extreme old age. But you have produced three 
strapping volumes, full of life, and freshness, and vigor, and that 
will live forever. You have laid the foundations of your work 
so deep, that nothing can shake it ; you have built it up with a 
care that renders it reliable in all its parts; and you have finished 



GEORGE TICKNOR. 17 

it oft' with a grace and beauty that leave nothing to be desired. 
It is well worth a lifetime to achieve such a work." 

On its appearance it was elaborately reviewed both in this 
country and abroad. From that by Mr. Prescott, from which I 
have already quoted, in the "North American," for January, 1850, 
I must cite again. He says : " Mr. Ticknor's History is con- 
ducted in a truly philosophical spirit. Instead of presenting a 
barren record of books — which, like the catalogue of a gallery of 
paintings, is of comparatively little use to those who have not 
previously studied them — he illustrates the works by the per- 
sonal history of their authors, and this again by the history of 
the times in which he lived; affording by the reciprocal action 
of the one on the other a complete record of Spanish civilization, 
both social and intellectual." In regard to Mr. Ticknor's style, 
he says: "we cannot conclude without some notice of the style, 
so essential an element in a work of elegant literature. It is 
clear, classical, and correct, with a sustained moral dignity that 
not unfrequently rises to eloquence. But it is usually distin- 
guished by a calm philosophical tenor, that is well suited to the 
character of the subject." Page upon page of equally high com- 
mendation of this important work, could with ease be reproduced, 
but I shall content myself with only one other, that showing the 
appreciation with which it is held iu the country about whose 
literatui'e it treats. In " Spain, her institutions, politics, and 
people," published in 1853, from the facile pen of S. Teackle 
Wallis, Esq., of Baltimore — the author says : " Mr. Ticknor's 
history is everything that could be desired to supply what is thus 
felt in Spain to be a pressing literary want. It is a history of 
books as well as of literature. The variety, completeness, and 
accuracy of its details were — as I had occasion to know — a source 
of grateful surprise to the most learned of the Spanish literary 
arcbajologists. The acuteness and profundity of its criticisni 
and its perfect comprehension and appreciation of the Spanish 
mind, and taste, and spirit, were regarded by the most eminent 
3 



18 M E M O I R O F 

of the native writers and thinkers as all that a Spaniard could 
have been able to attain and next to miraculous in a foreigner. 
A distinguished man of letters, whose opinion would be regarded 
as oracular in Spain, and whose familiar acquaintance with French 
and English literature rendered the basis of his judgment as 
broad as that of almost any one — told me that he regarded Mr. 
Ticknor's work as 'the best history of a literature that he had 
ever seen.' " 

The next great work in which Mr. Ticknor engaged, was one 
for the advancement and lasting honor of his native city — the 
noble Public Library of Boston, in which, from first to last, he 
took a deep and active interest. The abiding honor of origi- 
nating this great charity, belongs to a member of one of the 
most remarkable families this countr3' or any other has pro- 
duced — indeed, I doubt whether another such bright record of 
hereditary ability, descending through six generations, can be 
found in the annals of the world. It is scarcely .necessary to 
say that its name is Quincy. During the mayoralty of Josiah 
Quincy, Jr., the eldest son of, for many years, the distinguished 
head of Harvard University, that extraordinary and eccentric 
individual, M. Alexander Vattemare, who had previously visited 
this country in the prosecution of his favorite plan of international 
exchange, sent a valuable donation of books from the city of 
Paris, to the city of Boston, and Mr. Quincy, as Mayor, took the 
opportunity, in a communication to the city council, relating to 
this gift, and M. Vattemare's scheme, dated, October 14th, 1817, to 
bring "the consideration of the propriety of commencing a pub- 
lic library," before the municipal government, and resolutions 
which this communication induced both branches to pass, estab- 
lished "The Public Library of the City of Boston," which as 
Mr. Edward Edwards, of London, in his " Free Town Libraries in 
Britain, France, Germany, and America," shows, was " the first 
really free and unrestricted library in the world." From this 
date until 1851, the progress was slow, but in that year it having 



G E O R G E T I C K N K . 19 

been ascertaitieJ that over four thousand volumes had been col- 
lected towards a free library, a board of trustees was appointed, 
for the purpose of fostering the good work into fruition. Of this 
board, Edward Everett was chairman, and his colleagues were, 
George Tickiior, John P. Bigelow, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, and 
Thomas G. Appleton. 

How the plan progressed under their care the result amply 
proves. The preliminary report on the subject, prepared by Mr. 
Ticknor, fell into the hands of Joshua Bates, of London, a partner 
in the famed banking house of Baring Brothers & Company, and 
it was through its medium, together with the personal influence 
of its author, that the munificent endowment was obtained which 
erected the present stately Bates Hall, the only terms upon which 
it was conditioned being that it should be "free to all; with no 
other restrictions than are necessary for the preservation of the 
books." To this grand enterprise for many years, Mr. Ticknor 
devoted large portions of his precious time, laboring most assidu- 
ously, in selecting books, making out lists for purchasing, and 
in perfecting all the minuti;e of tlie library system, and to him, 
the city of his birth is indebted, perhaps more than to any other 
man, for the complete practical workings of this great machine. 
In its interest he made a third voyage to Europe, during the 
years 1856 and 1857, consulting with Mr. Bates, its great bene- 
factor, and choosing volumes for its shelves. On the death of 
Mr. Everett in January, 18(35, Mr. Ticknor was appointed to 
succeed him as President of the Board of Trustees, and he con- 
tinued to perform the duties of the office until June, 1866, when 
he resigned and the following year retired from all official con- 
nection with this body. The citi/iens of Boston, desiring to tes- 
tify " by some permanent memorial tlieir appreciation of his dis- 
interested labors as a trustee of the institution during fourteen 
years, and of his liberality in adding to its usefulness by a gift 
of many thousand volumes," addressed him a letter in May, 
1867, requesting that he would sit for a portrait or bust, to be 



20 M p: M O T R O F 

deposited in the hall of the library. To this request he com- 
plied, and a Lust was made by Milmore and presented to the city 
in June, 1868, for which he chose the motto, "Lihris semper amicis." 

Mr. Ticknor was named by his friend Daniel Webster, together 
with Mr. Everett, Professor Felton, and lion. George Ticknor 
Curtis, one of his literary executors, and it was supposed tlie duty 
would- have fallen upon him of pre[)aring for publication a life 
of the giant statesman. But the task has lately been performed 
by the last and sole survivor of the four, who acknowledges in 
the introduction to his work the great indebtedness due to his 
kinsman, Mr. Ticknor, for the thorough revision he gave to the 
text, and then adds, " All who know the strength of his memory, 
the soundness of his judgments, and the severity of his taste, will 
appreciate, as I do, the advantage I have derived from his assist- 
ance." To the "Memorial," however, printed under the editorial 
supervision of his accomplished friend Mr. George S. Ilillard, 
Mr. Ticknor contributed an account of the " Illness and Death of 
the Great Statesman," whose dying words " I still live," are and 
ever will be as true as when they were uttered. 

On the 28th day of January, 1859, died suddenly of apoplexy, 
the true, the noble, and the gifted Prescott, and upon Mr. Tick- 
nor devolved tlie sad pleasure of preparing for the press such a 
memorial of his literary life as was supposed might be expected. 
This volume, which perhaps has been the most generally read 
of Mr. Ticknor's writings, was issued in an elegant quarto with 
numerous illustrations, in 1863, and again the following year, in 
two less expensive forms. It has been considered, and justly so, 
one of the most finished and beautiful biographies in the lan- 
guage. To me it has a double charm, for it was the means of 
my becoming personally acquainted with its author. Soon after 
its appearance, I prepared an article on Mr. Prescott with Mr. 
Ticknor's work for my basis, which was subsequently printed in 
a periodical and a few copies struck off in pamphlet form, one of 
which was forwarded to him, and in concluding a very coinpli- 



G E O R G E T I C K X O R . 21 

inciitary acknowledgment of it, he says of his friend, " Wiiatever 
is said or done in his honor is always interesting to me." It was 
not many months later before I was in Boston, for a few days, and 
at the suggestion of a friend I called on Mr. Ticknor, at liis far- 
famed residence in Park Street, opposite the common. On send- 
ing up my card I was immediately invited to his study, where I 
was cordially received by him, in company with Mr. Cogswell 
and Mr. Ilillard. He at once alluded to my tribute to his friend, 
and also referred to another production of mine on a Spanish 
American subject. I intimated a desire to see the portrait of 
Scott, which Leslie had painted from life, expressly for Mr. Tick- 
nor, in 1825, and pointing it out, he spoke of his visit to Abbots- 
foi'd, in 1819, with all the freshness of an event not a week old, 
especially calling my attention to the interesting fact, that the 
Mr. Cogswell, then present, was his companion on that occasion, 
nearly half a century before. The portrait of Scott had the post 
of honor on the walls, — over the mantle, and it had escaped my 
observation, owing to the room being darkened by the lateness 
of the hour. His books were all properly classified in their 
cases, ready for easy reference, and the whole atmosphere of the 
surroundings made one forgetful of the proximity of the outside 
world. This house was for many years the centre of the highest 
culture, and of the choicest literary and social element of the 
American Athens, and it was a witticism of Theodore Parker, 
that no man could consider himself of any account in the world 
of Boston, if he was not admitted to Mr. Ticknor's study. He 
was virtually the autocrat of Boston literary society. As I was 
leaving, I asked him, if he had a scrap of Prescott's writing 
he could spare me, but he said he feared all had been begged 
away. Nearly a year afterwards, certainly when this request had 
escaped my memory, I received a note from him, in which he 
says: "It is seldom I turn up anything of the late Mr. Prescott's 
fit for an autograph — so rarely did he write even notes with his 
own hand, in consequence of the infirmity of his sight. But I 



22 JI E M O I R O F 

found one the other day, and send it to you, in answer to your 
wish expressed long ago, but has not been forgotten or neglected, 
as yo\i now see." This letter, witii its enclosure, now finds a fitting 
place in a copy of the quarto edition of tl:e biography, which I 
look upon as one of the choicest volumes in my collection. 

During Mr. Ticknor's first visit to Spain in 1818, he was elect- 
ed a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy of 
History, and subsequently an honorary associate of the Historical 
and Geographical Society of Brazil. In 1850, the Royal Society 
of Antiquaries, London, chose him to a fellowship, an honor con- 
ferred upon but six other of his countrymen. With the American 
Philosophical Society and the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, 
he was connected in membershij), and at the time of his decease, 
he was second on the list of members of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society ; the Hon. James Savage being first, and our Hon- 
orary Vice-President, Mr. Winthrop, the third. From 1823, until 
he made his second visit to Europe, he was one of .the Trustees 
of the Boston Athen;eum, and in this institution he took great 
interest, particularly in that impoi'tant branch of historical litera- 
ture too often neglected, the collection and preservation of pam- 
phlets. Harvard and Brown Universities each bestowed upon 
him tlie degree of Doctor of Laws in 1850, and his Alma Mater 
in 1858. He was elected a member of this society in May, 1866. 

On the third of January, in the present year, Mr. Ticknor was 
struck with a partial paralysis, and although the use of his body 
was gone, his mental faculties remained unimpaired; while up 
to this time, the only signal of his fast waning years had been a 
gradual weakening of his once most powerful memory. He died 
at his residence in Boston, on Thui'sday, the twenty-sixth day 
of January, 1871, at three o'clock in the morning, having nearly 
completed his eightieth year; and on the following Saturday his 
remains were deposited, privately, in the family vault in the 
Boyleston Street burying-ground, his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Gan- 
nett conducting the services. By his will he provided for the 



G E R G E T I C K N O R . 23 

final disposition of liis magnificent collection of books and manu- 
scripts, which in 18,30 numbered over fifteen thousand volumes. 
He rrcive it to the city of Boston, for the Public Library, too-ether 
with a sum sufficient to keep it in constant repair and make to 
it gradual additions. During his lifetime it was always open to 
those who desired and deserved to use its treasures, and especially 
to meritorious young men. He did what the owners of valuable 
books can rarely do — he lent them freely, taking no other precau- 
tion than to note the names of the borrowers, and he is said seldom 
to have had reason to repent for his liberality. He acted always 
on the theory that the grandest usefulness of a library lay in the 
freest circulation of its books. Mr. Ticknor was always kind to 
struggling genius, and in the case of Percival, went even further 
than friendshipi called for, in endeavoring to aid him; — he had 
compassion for his erratic and sensitive nature, and Percival for 
some time seemed to look to Ticknor to keep bread in his mouth. 
Mr. Ticknor was one of the truest types of the literary scliolar 
America has produced, and there is not a community of scholars 
anywhere in which his name is not honored. Few, whether in 
public or private life, have enjoyed so wide an intercourse with 
persons of eminence and distinction, abroad as well as at home. 
In all the capitals of Europe, which he visited, the highest and 
most cultivated society welcomed him for the richness and powers 
of his conversation, his agreeable manners, his varied knowledge 
and his great social and literary reputation. He was a most de- 
lightful and instructive companion, having a remarkable memory 
well stocked with the fruits of extensive reading and rich with 
anecdote of distinguished men. His temperament was eminently 
genial and social, and with his deep sparkling eye, rich olive 
complexion, soft voice, charming smile, and stately manners, he 
pictured the Castilian of whose literature he wrote. Ticknor, 
like Prescott, inherited fortune and married a woman of fortune, 
and thus was placed at entire leisure for literary pursuits. His 
opinions were many of them strongly such as are termed con- 



24 JI E ir O I R OF GEORGE T I C K X O R . 

servative, and he held to tliem steadily a;id expressed them freely 
as his honest, independent, and individual judgment. In his 
religious views he was an old-fashioned Unitarian, but contem- 
plated witli the deepest sorrow and alarm the tendencies among 
some of his fellow religionists towards scepticism and unbelief. 

Mr. Ticknor omitted in his will to name any literary executor, 
but the Massachusetts Historical Society has appointed his friend 
Mr. Ilillard to prepare the customary memoir for its published 
proceedings ; and it is intimated that he also contemplates a more 
extensive biography, for which there are ample materials in the 
papers left by Mr. Ticknor. Certainly, there is no one better 
qualified or more competent for the task than this gentleman, 
whose elegant taste and polished pen are so well known and so 
justly admired. We shall look eagerly for its fulfilment. 

J[r. Ticknor had three children, two of whom — daughters, and 
the younger the wife of William S. Dexter, Esq., of the Boston 
bar — with their mother, survive him. 



Note — Since tlie preceding pages were written, the writer has been informed 
that Mr. Ticknor "gave, by his will, to the Pnblie Library of Boston, only his 
collection of Spanish literature and Portuguese, wiiich amounted to about four 
thousand volumes. The money given was to keep this very valuable eolieetion 
in order, and to add to it when possible." This be(|uest, by the terms of the 
will, was not to take effect until after the death of Mrs. Ticknor; but this lady 
generously relinquished her rigbt to retain tlie colUelion during ]ier life, and 
accordingly the books were at once transferred to the eare of the duly appointed 
trustee. 



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